Optical delay line scanDelay

Optical Delay with High Precision ScanDelay, an optical delay line, allows the introduction of a well-defined time delay into an optical path. The delay is periodically controlled by a fast scanning shaker at a frequency of up to 20 Hz. The heart of APE’s optical delay line series is a special linear translation stage that is supplied together with appropriate control and drive electronics. The linear drive has been designed especially for optical applications. It combines low moving mass with compactness, reaching a high speed, as well as high precision and resolution. The delay drive moves frictionless, has a large and precise travel range, and allows for very small displacements without any stick-slip-effects. Thus scanDelay is capable of generating fast wide scans as well as smallest delays without any stick-slip effects. The actual position is measured in real time by an analog photo-electric system with high resolution and a wide dynamic range. The linear drive allows an ultra-precise scanner movement and leads to an excellent scan-to-scan reproducibility. Including Software & Electronics The control electronic contains the motion driver and a quartz stabilized signal synthesizer. It can be synchronized with an external clock for a precise, phase-locked scanner movement. The software interface allows the user easy and fast setup of the scanning parameters. A visualized scan curve with amplitude values in time units gives direct feedback when the user is optimizing the scanning parameters. The software interface also incorporates the feedback loop controlled scanner stabilization. A set of LabView drivers allows the integration into existing measurement software.